complete 2 communication for graduates discussions

Attire

A poster session may be your first public and professional activity. You want to make a good impression. As such, some types of clothing are appropriate, but others are not. It isn’t unreasonable to consider a poster session as a type of interview. For instance, just as viewers judge the quality of your research, at least in part, from the layout of your poster, they will judge your credibility by the way you look. You should dress as a professional. This means dressing so a person responds to your work rather than to the way you look. You might object to the idea that people will evaluate your work based on how you look, but that is reality.

What constitutes professional attire varies depending on the individual and the venue. At some professional conferences, some presenters wear more formal, business attire while others are more casual. At student conferences, it is more the norm for presenters to dress in “business casual” clothing.

For women, a business suit would never be inappropriate, but it is probably more than you need. Instead, slacks or skirts are usually acceptable. As a rule, a conservative approach to colors is more professional than flashy or trendy colors. Thus, slacks or skirts that are black, brown, khaki, navy blue or other traditional colors will help you make a good impression. A blouse or shirt should coordinate with your slacks or skirt. It is probably best to avoid fabrics such as velour or velvet, denim, or party-like fabrics.

Your shoes should have a professional appearance, so it would not be appropriate to wear extremely casual sandals, high heels, or platform shoes. At the same time, you should wear comfortable shoes. Poster sessions last for 1–2 hr. Attractive but painful shoes can detract greatly from your experience.

Men have less latitude than women regarding professional attire. It’s generally a business suit, which is acceptable but probably more than you need, or a sport coat with appropriate slacks. Depending on the specific meeting, you may be expected to wear a tie.

Men should wear leather shoes, not athletic shoes.

You may find it interesting that essentially no research has been devoted to what constitutes an effective poster. Many people have proposed guidelines that others have adopted. But the elements of a successful poster are as much a matter of art, tradition, and consensus as anything else.

On the other hand, a team of two researchers has investigated the effect of the clothing of a poster presenter on attention paid to the poster. Keegan and Bannister (2003) discovered that when a presenter’s blouse was color coordinated to match the color of her poster, there were more visitors to the poster than when her clothes clashed with the poster.

Covering Your Poster

Poster sessions generally run for 1–2 hr, during which time people expect you to be at your poster. Your research is more interesting to you than to anybody else, so don’t be discouraged if quite a few people glance your way and move on without talking to you about your work. In fact, many more people will bypass your poster than will actually stop and talk about it with you. The value of a poster session is that it allows people with similar interests to interact individually; those with other interests can find different posters.

It can be frustrating to watch people walk by, but that is the nature of a poster session. When you are at your poster, if you stand right in front of it, you might block the view of your work, so you should stand slightly to one side.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t talk to the person whose poster is next to yours or to your friends and co-authors. But it does mean that when an interested viewer approaches, he or she should feel comfortable talking to you. If you are engaged in an animated conversation with a friend, the viewer may not want to interrupt you.

When you are discussing your research, somebody may ask a question that you can’t answer. It is acceptable to say you don’t know the answer, but you should try to address the issue that was raised.

It also helps to have a handout for people who are interested. The handout could be a small copy of your poster or it could be an APA-style manuscript describing your research. People can talk to you about your work during the poster session, then study it in greater depth at a later point. Very often there are chairs at poster session on which you can place your handouts so people don’t have to ask you for one. Or you could affix a large envelope containing your handouts on the poster board.

Finally, one of the drawbacks to a poster session is that, if you are at your poster, you may not have a lot of time to walk around and view those of others. One remedy is to set up your poster before your session begins, then to walk around the poster area to see what is there; if others have handouts, you can pick them up. Another possibility is to wait until the crowd in the poster session diminishes before you look at other posters. At this point in the poster session, you may have formed a relationship with the person at the poster next to yours; that person can tell any viewers that you will be right back. If you have a co-author on the poster, you can take turns standing at the poster and walking around the display area.

The key to a successful poster presentation is to spend time in advance creating a visually compelling poster with substantial content, being familiar with the work so you can answer questions about it, being comfortable telling people what you know, and adopting a professional demeanor as you interact with viewers.